"The murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955 brought nationwide attention to the racial violence and injustice prevalent in Mississippi. While visiting his relatives in Mississippi, Till went to the Bryant store with his cousins, and may have whistled at Carolyn Bryant. Her husband, Roy Bryant, and brother-in-law, J.W. Milam, kidnapped and brutally murdered Till, dumping his body in the Tallahatchie River."(Library of Congress)
Saturday was devoted to the Emmett Till Intrepid Center, Emmett Till Interpretive Center, Sumner Courthouse, Bryant Groceries, and other Till markers. First, it is hard for me to realize that Emmett Till's murder only occurred nine years before I was born. I realized that I have never asked my mom, who was an adult when a lot of civil rights events were going down, what her perception of events were. That's on the do list when I get home.
I started at Sumner courthouse where the infamous trial took place. It was restored to its 1955 appearance in 2014. Shortly, after the trial the court room had been redecorated in purple of all colors and totally changed in appearance. The court room itself is in good condition, but the rest of the building could use a little sprucing up.
As I stood in the courtroom, i tried to imagine the vibe and energy that filled the room. It is not that big. I considered the view from the judge's chair and stared down the 12 white male jurors who only took 67 minutes to find Roy Bryant and his brother-in-law, J.W. Milam not guilty of any charges. I wasn't sure whether i wanted to scream in rage or cry at the injustice that occurred in this room. They would have returned the verdict sooner, except they decided it would look bad to be too quick, so they drank some Cokes to delay.
There is no historical signage in the building. Outside there is a marker on one side of the building and on the other stands a stature memorializing soldiers of the Confederacy. The own itself is non-existent. Only a few store fronts still have businesses. The hotel where the press and other stayed is no longer there. The woman at the interpretive center said even the one anchor of the community, the Dollar General, had burned down and arson is suspected. They are not sure if it will be rebuilt since there are other Dollar Generals going up in nearby towns, but they would still be at least 10 miles away for the residents of Sumner/Webb,
The exhibit there was not as extensive as I had expected. They are trying to get recognized as a national historic site, and she said things were looking positive for that. When I asked if any of the recently released Till movie was filmed there, she said no. The movie was filmed in Atlanta and surrounding areas in Georgia. Of course, had they tried to film here, there was not place for cast and crew to stay within 30 miles, no restaurants, really nothing except there is a police station.
We talked a lot about race relations, and what is needed to repair and rebuild this area. A few years ago, there was an apology and acknowledgement statement written, which is a start. Sadly, that didn't occur until after Emmett's mother, Mamie, had passed away. I also asked her if she knew anything about the memoir that Carolyn Bryant has supposedly written but not yet published. She had found a leaked version and read it. Basically, it is Carolyn denying culpability or responsibility. An unserved arrest warrant for her was uncovered, but in August of this year grand jury decline to proceed. The perpetrators a year after the murder, sold their story to Life Magazine and bragged about how they had killed Emmett. Due to double jeopardy laws, they were never again tried. It has to be one of the most blatant examples of injustice ever,
I also visited the Intrepid center. They are struggling more with funding, but they are located in Glendora where most of the events actually occurred. Interestingly, only a few buildings remain that were involved in the crime. The old cotton gin where the Intrepid Center is housed is one of them. It is there where Bryant and Milam are thought to have tortured Emmett before attaching a 70 pound turbine blade with barbed wire to his body before dumping him in the the river. It is not know if Emmett was already dead or drowned in the river. Milam's house next door is a pile of rubble.
Just down the road, is signage about the murder of Clinton Melton. He was shot over a dispute about how much gas he dispensed for Elmer Otis Kimball, a friend of Milam's. Clinton had been outspoken about Till's death. A few days before she was to testify at the trial, Melton's wife Beluah died in a car crash on the bridge over the black bayou where is is believed Till's body was dumped and then flowed downstream. Local lore feels confident that someone ran her off the road. Two of her children in the car survived. All five of her children went to life with a sister with both parents now gone.
I found the marker where it is believed Till's body was found. Three miles down a dirt road. the sign is bullet proof and has a surveillance video. Previous signs had been shot up to 130 times in efforts to destroy them. Healing is needed here badly. The economy is horrible here and the continued racial tensions, I believe keep the community from improving.
The Bryant's store is badly deteriorated. It went out of business after Till's death, as blacks refused to shop there any more. Money was not even really a down. Just a few business there at one time it appears. The owners of the store property are relatives of one of the jurors, and has refused to sell the property for it to be turned into any kind of museum. Originally, they asked $40M for it. They are down to $4M at the moment. The arm of the federal government that creates national historic sites is working on getting the property for a fair price. Will there be anything left by then?
I made a side trip to Ruleville, where Fannie Lou Hamer was from. Fannie was a plantation worker with only a sixth grade education. After civil rights bills in the 1960s made it possible for blacks to vote again, she tried to register to vote. She was denied and subsequently fired form her job on a local plantation. That galvanized her into action as a civil rights activist at age 44. She suffered for her cause being arrested and brutally beaten, but she persevered until her death in 1974. The site has a life size status of her 5'4" frame which is mounted on a pedestal so people have to look up to her. I learned this as I followed a group of students from an Emmett Till school in Drew, MS and their leader who knew Fannie was giving them a tour. Fannie is buried here with her husband.
My roost for the night was an AirBnb in Greenwood. I had a diner dinner at the Crystal Grill where they still have melba toast in the cracker basket and liver and onions on the menu. My mom would have loved that. I had grilled red fish (excellent) with a seafood sauce and a slice of lemon ice box pie.
Buddha found her spot and no storms this evening, but we did wake up to rain.
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